Con VENTION — 3IAKIN0 HOME PLEASANT. 
203 
room. Give the little ones a garden; a spade 'vvitli which to dig, 
made of wood if need be, and a few seeds, which they will dig up 
every day, and enjoy more than many a sickly city child does its 
store of fine playthings. Are your fences unpainted? Whitewash 
them, then cover them with vines. Morning glories will make the 
plainest porch beautiful. Does the sun shine in your window? 
Make a curtain of nature’s own, and let the green shade be yours. 
Surely these gifts from the Almighty are given to all. 
Pictures should find a place in the living room of the family, if in 
no other. There are many ways of obtaining them in these days, 
Avhen almost every branch of industry offers a chromo as a prize. 
Frequently an old magazine will have a fine engraving in it, which 
can be framed by the ingenious boy, or girl, of the family; some¬ 
times one child has a taste for drawing, a longing to be an artist; 
encourage him to copy some good engraving; if you do not admire 
the effort, do not say so, but let it hang a little’while on your wall; 
if he has an artist’s eye, he will soon discover its deficiencies. If 
it has no merit as a drawing, it will have that of making him love 
his home, and the sympathy of those in it, and while he is doing 
that he will do nothing worse. 
Healthy games, both indoors and out, will make homes very pleas¬ 
ant. Better for the father to play ball with his boys, and know where 
they are. Wiser for the mother to join them all in a game of croquet, 
and let them feel that she has a share in their pleasures. Boys and 
girls who may enjoy these things at home, and have their friends with 
them there, escape much of the danger of childhood’s hours, both 
bodily and mentally. If you have no croquet set and want one, set 
the boys at work; it only requires a little ingenuity, and they can 
do it. If you have no games for long winter evenings, when books 
are laid aside and all the family can join in some amusement, bor¬ 
row one and copy it. The drawing and writing it will be an amuse¬ 
ment of itself. Any boy can make a checker board, mother can 
find buttons of two colors, and you can have a checker board, and 
not pay for it either. If possible let music be one of the sources 
of interest in your home. If you have no instrument to play on, 
sing without one. Do not be afraid of a little noise. If the boys 
shout a little, it is bettor inside than out. There is some music in 
every household, and here let me say that no memory of your home, 
when it has passed away, will be so dear to your children as the 
